By Lyle Estill
The seventh annual Sustainable Biodiesel Summit will be held in Grapevine, Texas on February 6th and 7th, 2010. Once again community activists, backyard brewers, farmers, and those with a passion for sustainable biodiesel are coming together to discuss sustainable, community-based Biodiesel. As in year’s past the SBS will be staged to coincide with the National Biodiesel Board’s Annual Conference and Exhibition, being held in Grapevine, February 7-10.
From modest beginnings at a borrowed college campus in Claremont, California in 2003, the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit has gone on to attract experts from around the world. Researchers take their seats next to do-it-yourselfers; renowned academics take their seats next to those running biodiesel facilities, all with an interest in sustainable biodiesel.
“The SBS is one of the few conferences where real people get together to talk about real things,” said Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels. “If we are ever going to differentiate ourselves from ‘business as usual,’ it will be thanks to undertakings like the SBS,” Estill said.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Bill Holmberg, long time champion of biofuels and sustainable new wealth industry. The schedule this year will feature a series of action-oriented roundtable discussions at a small, local winery and a trip to Carl’s Corner to visit Willie Nelson’s Biodiesel Plant.
Sustainability is more important today than ever before and the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit has grown to be annual discussion platform for the movement. At the 2008 Summit the National Biodiesel Board announced the formation of its Sustainability Task Force; Several members of which have been Sustainable Biodiesel Summit participants and organizers.
Frankie Abralind has been attending the SBS since 2003. He started out as a homebrewer, became a small biodiesel producer, and went on to publish biodieselSMARTER magazine. “The SBS is where activism and industry meet,” Abralind said. “It’s conferences like this that will shape the future of sustainable fuels.”
The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (SBA), headquartered in Austin, Texas, is deeply involved in the organization of this year’s Sustainable Biodiesel Summit. The SBA is best known for publishing the Baseline Practices for Sustainability, the first guidance document for sustainability in Biodiesel, and their continued efforts to educate the Biodiesel industry on the benefits of community-based, sustainable Biodiesel.
The Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) an international organization based in Switzerland working on a global sustainable labeling platform for biofuels, is working closely with the SBA, the NBB and volunteers from across the biodiesel industry to help organize this year’s event.
Since 2003 the Abundance Foundation, a 501(c) 3 in Pittsboro, North Carolina that has a mission of local food, renewable fuels, and community development has been the fiscal sponsor for the SBS. In addition to providing logistical support, and arranging for web services Abundance has work diligently to bring volunteers together to make this important event a success.
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) is the trade association representing the biodiesel industry as the coordinating body for research and development in the U.S. since 1992. NBB’s mission is to create a sustainable biodiesel industry, serve a coordinating entity for technical research, and be a unified voice for its diverse membership base.
